"We always see a spike in calls when the cold weather peaks," said Matthew Stanton, a spokesman for the state Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The state SPCA hot line - (800) 582-5979 - has averaged 60 calls a day since the cold spell, he said.
"It's not so much the snow, but when we get the really cold weather," Stanton said of the phone calls. "Just like humans, you have to take extra caution."
The SPCA provides doghouses for pet owners who don't have them under a "new initiative" program begun last year, Stanton said. The doghouses are purchased with money raised through donations and SPCA fund-raisers, he said.
"People should be considerate enough to bring their pets inside when it gets cold," said John DeCando, Paterson's chief animal control officer. "It's common sense."
Since the cold spell, his office has averaged 10 calls a day from people who think they see endangered pets.
On Saturday at 10 a.m., as the temperature hovered between 5 and 9 degrees, DeCando went to North 10th Street to find a tiny dog on a 2- foot chain, sitting on a towel in the back yard.
"It was a 10-pound Chihuahua shivering and shaking," DeCando said. "There was no food, no water."
He brought the dog to the heated city pound.
"It started snowing at noon," DeCando said. "If it hadn't been for a concerned neighbor, I would have never known about it and the dog would have probably died."
The owner of the Chihuahua was charged with animal cruelty, a disorderly persons offense, DeCando said.
The same day, DeCando said he went to Highland Street in Paterson and found a German shepherd outside under carpets that had been fashioned as a shelter.
"The dog did have shelter, but it wasn't adequate," he said. The dog owner, who lives in West Paterson, brought the dog to her basement after receiving a warning.
"A lot of people don't realize that dogs get sick just like people," DeCando said.
Under the state's animal cruelty laws, pet owners who fail to provide proper shelter from the weather are subject to fines of up to ,000 and six months in jail, or both.
Since the weekend snowstorm, Lt. Robert Boyle of the Passaic County SPCA has received a "good half-dozen calls in the Clifton area alone" about animals being left out in the cold.
In one case, a soft-hearted resident brought in some cats.
"They were a half-frozen stray feral cats and not in good health to begin with," Boyle said. "They were frozen, dehydrated. Sometimes you can help them. Sometimes you can't."
Then there are the false alarms. One resident called about a dog outside during the storm.
"The dog had a doghouse under a deck that was heated," Boyle said. "The person who called couldn't see it [the doghouse under the deck]. This particular dog loved the cold weather."
Another time, Boyle received a call about a dog in the cold - who turned out to be a 17-year-old Siberian huskie.
"The people who owned him were from Oregon and said the dog was used to the cold and did not want to be in the house," Boyle said.
Animal officials don't mind answering such calls.
"We'd rather have people call if they are not sure about what they see - as long as it's a legitimate concern," Boyle said. "The call we don't get, that will be the call where a dog is freezing."
Boyle said he advises owners with "outside dogs" - those that ordinarily don't mind the cold - to consider the options when the temperature dips below zero and there is a wind chill.
"Unless their dog is impervious to weather, they really have to evaluate whether the dog should be brought in," Boyle said.
In the winter, doghouses should have a rug flap over the opening to protect the pet from wind.
"A doghouse shouldn't be 100 times bigger than the dog," Boyle advised. "The whole point of a doghouse is that the dog will go in and start to consume its own body heat. That's why you don't have a 10-by-10 doghouse for a Chihuahua."
E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com
Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Jan. 28, 2005